In fact, feminism is just the belief that all people have the full circle of human qualities combined in a unique way in each of us. The simplistic labels of "feminine" and "masculine" are mostly about what society wants us to do: submerge our unique humanity in care giving and reproducing if we're women, and trade our unique humanity for power if we're men.
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
We're all a bunch of monkeys
I've described myself as a feminist to many people. I read a piece by Gloria Steinem this morning, and although the overall piece pretty much said that bad people are bad people regardless of gender, I think this paragraph is worthy of repetition, since feminism is pretty misunderstood (I have liberal/progressive female friends who don't consider themselves feminists and sometimes even seem to prefer the double-standard - when it's in their favor):
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Here's the problem with feminism: To accept the label is to accept that you are acting on behalf of women as a group; that you are accepting that women SHOULD be seen as a group and have interests separate from men. There is no way around this central paradox, and it necessarily contradicts many of the notions that "feminists" fight for. I would suggest that I definitely am in favour of equality between men and women, but I don't think we should be necessarily advocating about "women's" issues....
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